FIFA 2004 (PS2)

...the dramatic improvement that was fifa 2003, the gaming community had high hopes for this update. Initially, I thought this had been achieved, but faults began to show.

GRAPHICS

I will begin, however, by concentrating on the positives. The graphics simply are superb. If we forget about the fact that many players look nothing like their real life counterparts, then there is a very solid and well constructed graphics engine. ...
...of the positives of the fifa series, and 2004 carries this on well. Everything from the menu system to the in-game popups add to the TV broadcast style of the game. I do not really need to go in depth – the graphics are great, and I have no huge complaints.

SOUND

Overall, the assortment of ‘mottyisms’, cheers, chants and music is top quality. The soundtrack of EA sports ‘trax’ this year more varied and interesting than ... more

After the dramatic improvement that was fifa 2003, the gaming community had high hopes for this update. Initially, I thought this had been achieved, but faults began to show.

GRAPHICS

I will begin, however, by concentrating on the positives. The graphics simply are superb. If we forget about the fact that many players look nothing like their real life counterparts, then there is a very solid and well constructed graphics engine. The stadiums, kits, balls, players, etc, all look very realistic, and give the game a real sense of atmosphere. I have found a few problems with floodlights – playing night games at old trafford seems to always be accompanied by a dazzling glare which makes it nigh-on impossible to see replays from certain angles, but overall, the look of the game is very polished.
Presentational sheen has always been one of the positives of the fifa series, and 2004 carries this on well. Everything from the menu system to the in-game popups add to the TV broadcast style of the game. I do not really need to go in depth – the graphics are great, and I have no huge complaints.

SOUND

Overall, the assortment of ‘mottyisms’, cheers, chants and music is top quality. The soundtrack of EA sports ‘trax’ this year more varied and interesting than 2003, and although bound to become tiresome very quickly, is a plus point. In game, the commentary has also improved. There are still, of course, the obligatory foul-ups, such as scoring a penalty and hearing motty bellow ‘he’s put it over the wall!’ but many of them are simply amusing rather than a real drawback. There is now a lot more banter between the two commentators, which again gives a more TV style presentation, and although some do drag on a bit, they are mostly quite slick and realistic. Motty also reels off player names and comments on tackles, etc, at quite a pace, and Ally mccoist does a good job aswell, even though exclaiming that there are very few in the business who can rival a division 2 player at passing may be slightly off the mark.
One of 2003’s proudest boasts was the inclusion of many real life team chants, and 2004 continues this clever addition, simply by adding to the collection. There are inconsistencies – Man Utd fans do not sing ‘are you watching merseyside’ while losing 2-0 to luton town – but like the mottyisms, these do not detract too much from the game, and as long as you don’t listen to the words very carefully, will just add to the atmosphere. Apart from chants, there are of course cheers and boos – these, unfortunately, are not implemented as well as I had hoped – 2003 problems such as silence when the away team scores remain. Despite all these little niggling problems, I feel the sound this year does contribute to the atmosphere very nicely, and is another good feature of 2004.

GAMEPLAY

I said there were problems, and unfortunately they seem to be concentrated in this most crucial of areas. Using the professional difficulty level as the example, there are 2 words to describe the overall feel of the game, having owned it for about a month – frustrating and repetitive. The ball ping-pongs around the midfield, and when you do get a break, the opposition promptly ends it before you have a good chance to build up an opening. The majority of goals that are scored come from set pieces - which, admittedly, are very well done in this edition – or from long range, thanks to the new ‘natural curl’ feature or the inconsistency of the goalkeepers. In 2003, it was certainly far too easy to simply run into the box and shoot just before you reached the keeper, but this year, it is far too hard. It is simply impossible to beat defenders, despite any gulf in class between the players. Last years much lauded ‘freestyle control system’, which has supposedly been updated, is now almost completely redundant. While sprinting, a jiggle of the right analog or c stick, which would previously produce a useful shimmy or knock on, now just simply makes the player push the ball in a different, seemingly random direction. Even when not sprinting, a similar result occurs. To have the slightest chance of pulling off something skilful, the walk button must be held – even then, tricks that were easy to perform and utilise in 2003, are now difficult, and at walking pace, are not really useful in the slightest. The ‘evolution’ of this system also includes off the ball jostling, which is a useful addition – but the inability to use skills to beat even the poorest defenders is a big letdown.
I now come to this years big new feature – off the ball control. This supposedly allows you to access the 99% of real football that is played by making runs, finding space, etc. There are various elements to this new feature.

1.Tapping L or the equivalent button on the ps2 controller causes a player without the ball, usually the one you are facing, to set off on a run. You can also push the right analog/c stick in the direction you want the runner to head, in order to open up the space for a pass. To be honest, I find that players usually head in the most obvious direction anyway, so this second part is often uneccessary. Nevertheless, player runs are useful, and indeed, one of my only qualms with pro evo is the inability to send teammates off on runs.

2.Pressing Z or equivalent ps2 button now zooms the camera out and puts indicators above 3 of your teammates. One of these can then be selected, and guided around with the right analog stick. Then, by using either lob or through ball, a pass can be played to them, which heads off to the selected receiver. These passes are pretty much ‘laser guided’ and will, most of the time, reach the destination – however, defenders can head them away if the receiver is not in the correct position. Overall, this feature is quite well done – if slightly useless – I do use it quite regularly, but never to great effect.

3.Defensive off the ball consists of 2 functions – jostling in set piece situations, by shoving with the right analog – which, as I have already said, works well – and ‘secondary defender control’ where a teammate can be called in to steal the ball from an attacker you are jostling with in open play. I have not found this second feature in the slightest bit useful – although that could be because I have not actually used it, nor have I been in any situations where I need to. So, for me, this is useless. Maybe I will discover how to use it someday.
Off the ball is an ingenious and ambitious idea, which is not quite used to its full potential – much like freestyle control was in 2003. Something to build upon, perhaps – as long as EA don’t ruin it, like they have this year with freestyle.

With the two gimmicks out of the way, I will go on to the fundamentals of the gameplay. As I said, frustrating and repetitive. Certainly on pro difficulty, it is almost impossible to score a ‘normal’ goal – ie running through on the keeper, possibly interchanging passes, and shooting past him. On pro and world class, this is almost impossible, except when the opposition makes mistakes – My controller must be on the brink of dying, with the number of times I have walloped it on the floor in rage as I once again fail to get into the box. Players are unresponsive and slow, and feel like concrete blocks moving through treacle.
The repetitive aspect is more prominent on the 2 lower difficulties, where although the ‘normal’ goals are possible, they are hardly needed due to the ease of scoring from long range shots, which curl into the corners of the net on a far too regular basis. I was frequently frustrated from long range in 2003, so when I scored my first long ranger in 2004, I was rubbing my hands with glee – however, I then went on to discover how easy it was to repeat my shot again, and again, and again. Similarly, I often score EXACTLY the same header from a certain type of corner.

Ultimately, for me, the game is too easy, and therefore repetitive, on semi pro or amateur – but too hard, and therefore frustrating, on pro and world class. I am certainly no newcomer to the fifa series – without meaning to sound boastful, I could pretty much win any game on world class on 2003, and on this edition, pro and world class are easy to dominate in terms of possession and shots (of course, long range efforts) but too hard to score ordinary goals – meaning I achieve frequent 0-0 bore draws, or not-much-more-enjoyable 1-0 wins. It is not only my inability to score that annoys, but the CPU’s aswell – I recently played a friendly with Boston United and Real Madrid (ie the worst team on the game vs the best) with me as boston, on world class, and was disappointed to only lose 2-0, to 2 scrappy and not very madrid-ish goals, having still dominated the game. I was hoping to be thrashed by 6 goals or more, being torn apart with passing and skills, but no. What exactly is there for me to build upon if I can already dominate the best team in the world with one of the worst of the game? As I said, I did dominate the match, but was unable to score thanks to the shoddiness of the overall gameplay.

All this just seems to have ripped all the fun out of the game. When playing pro evo 3 with mates, It really is so enjoyable, you can really get into it, and goals feel like a real achievement. With fifa, scoring is either a case of ‘oh, another one from there’ or ‘finally……’. Multiplayer is certainly better than playing the CPU, but is still just so boring – especially when you could be battling out a thriller on pro evo. 2004 just lacks the magic that konami’s crowning glory has. It just isn’t fun enough.

There are many other aspects to 2004, both good and bad – the new career mode more example, which although limited, is enjoyable – or the unfortunate prominence of a number of silly glitches or inconsistencies which cause annoyance and in the worst cases, crashes. I will not go into them, as the crucial feature of the game – the gameplay itself – is the essential factor which should be fulfilled properly before any other fancy extra bits can really be considered.

THE VERDICT

+’s and –‘s

+ Unprecedented realism in terms of presentation and the fact it has full licenses for kits, etc
+ A good sized database of teams and players, with the much needed inclusion of lower leagues and more south american teams
+ Career mode adds longevity
+ Practice mode is useful for….well, practising

- Gameplay is simply not good enough – frustrating and repetitive
- Stupid omissions, such as custom tournaments and certain international teams
- Far too many glitches which can cause problems
- Lacks ‘magic’ and fun
- Fails to drastically improve on 2003

OVERALL

I have to say that I am hugely disappointed in a game that I had been anticipating for months. I have already pledged to myself to make sure to get the next sony console, simply so I have the choice of being able to play pro evo – unless of course fifa 2005 does something special. We can always hope.

Is it worth £40? No. I paid £30 and I feel very hard done by. I’d pay £20 at a stretch. If like me, you only own a gamecube, and are a massive football fan, its probably worth getting for a low price like that, though you may want to consider just getting or keeping 2003, if you aren’t too bothered about having the latest kits and transfers. If you have a ps2, get pro evo 3 and enjoy it.
 

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